


Earth Science

by Glare



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alien!Anakin, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Here We Go Again With Glare's Terrible AUs, Investigative Journalist!Obi-Wan, M/M, People of Earth AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 06:49:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8963929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glare/pseuds/Glare
Summary: Sometimes there are moments in life when the extraordinary happens: when you open your eyes to the majesty of what lays beyond the boundaries of your day-to-day reality. Obi-Wan “Just Ben, Please” Kenobi’s moment should have been when he woke up, stark naked and bleeding from his nose, in the empty lot across town from his rented motel room.It was not.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea that came to me when I was laying around being miserable after I totaled my car in an accident yesterday morning. If you frequent my tumblr, you might have seen my posts about it. I decided to write a first chapter today while I was taking calls from insurance people.

Sometimes there are moments in life when the extraordinary happens: when you open your eyes to the majesty of what lays beyond the boundaries of your day-to-day reality. In these moments you’re forced to sit down and realize that things have irrevocably changed, and no amount of effort on your part is going to send them back to the way they were before. In these moments you have to pick yourself up off the ground and move forward in this reality, shiny and new, facing each day you’re afforded as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Obi-Wan “Just Ben, Please” Kenobi’s moment should have been when he woke up, stark naked and bleeding from his nose, in the empty lot across town from his rented motel room.

It was not.

In fact, when faced with a startling and unexpected awakening in a field full of overgrown grass and evidence of teenage misdemeanor, Ben Kenobi chocks the whole matter up to too much alcohol and a propensity for sleepwalking. In reality, neither of these things are the cause of this particular nocturnal relocation, though Ben will not come to accept this for quite some time.

For now he gets up, dusts himself off, and begins a cautious retreat to his motel room, hoping to get back before the early morning joggers begin their routes and spare himself the humiliation of a public indecency charge. While Ben’s rap sheet is not clean by any means—any investigative journalist worth his salt has at least one trespassing charge and a libel suit pending at any given time—public indecency doesn’t look nearly as appealing to potential employers as the other aforementioned charges.

And at the moment, future employers are quite important to Ben, as his current boss has recently earned himself considerable ire. Ben is, and he hates to brag, the best investigative journalist currently employed by the Coruscant Tribune. He’s taken down corrupt politicians, exposed corporate fraud, and shed light on the criminal underbelly of Coruscant’s streets. He should be out chasing his next big break, and yet has found himself here in the backwater town of Tatooine with specific instructions to look into the town’s alien abduction support group for the paper’s latest fluff piece. Ben Kenobi has won more awards for his writing in the last year than most journalists see in their lifetime; he does not _do_ fluff pieces. This had not stopped Xanatos DuCrion from stuffing a train ticket into the chest pocket of his suit jacket and sending him on his way with a falsely pleasant grin.

Tumbling back into his motel room, Ben collapses on the bed with a relieved groan. It had been a close one, but he thinks he managed to make it back without anyone spotting him. Figures that he’d have an episode when least convenient for him.

These sleepwalking episodes have happened ever since Ben was a child. He’d go to sleep tucked safely into his own bed and wake somewhere else entirely, sometimes with his nose bleeding and sometimes without. He’d return home to find his parents in a fit, horrified that he’d managed to slip out of the house without them noticing… again. Despite the numerous precautions they’d try to take, he’d somehow always manage to get away. Occasionally the sleepwalking episodes would be accompanied by vague dreams. Ben could never remember exactly what happened in the dreams, but there was always a boy. Younger than him, dressed in dark robes, with unruly blonde hair and blue eyes bright with curiosity. As he’d gotten older, the dreams of the boy had slowly faded. The nudity is a recent development.

Looking over at the alarm clock, Ben sighs when he realizes that he doesn’t have time to go back to sleep. He’s got to interview that ridiculous abduction group in just a few hours, and he’s in desperate need of a shower. A shower, and as much coffee as he can possible down in the time before the meeting. Ben has a sneaking suspicion that it’s going to be a long day.

* * *

 

 _Star-Crossed_ , Tatooine’s alien abduction support group, meets in the basement of the local Catholic Church. It consists of a half-dozen members of various genders, races, and ages. There’s a man with dark skin and dreadlocks, a thick golden band tattooed across the bridge of his nose who smiles at Ben like he’s a long-lost friend; a woman with brown eyes and impeccably styed hair that looks better suited to a fashion magazine than the dim lights of the church basement; a teenaged girl in a hijab, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

Several more members file in after Ben’s arrival, settling themselves into the circle of squeaky, plastic chairs provided by the church. After they’ve been filled, the man whom Ben presumes to be their leader stands to begin the meeting.

This is the first time Ben has met Qui-Gon Jinn in person. He’d exchanged phone calls with the man to discuss his presence in the group and the questions he might ask of its members, as well as the precautions he would take when writing the article to protect their anonymity. They’d come to an agreement that Ben would stick to the pre-approved list of questions and omit the personal details of group members from the published article. While several members are apparently quite outspoken about their beliefs and abductions, there are some who prefer to keep their experiences under the radar.

Jinn is tall, with long, slightly-greying hair and a warm smile. His clothes are well worn, though obviously cared for, and in Ben’s opinion gives off exactly the kind of vibe one might suspect to get from a self-proclaimed alien abduction specialist. “Hello, everyone,” Jinn announces. “Nice to see you all back again. As you all know, _Star-Crossed_ is a support group for those of us who have been graced by encounters with something beyond this earth. My name is Qui-Gon Jinn, and I’m the leader of this group. You may have noticed that we have a new face among our number today,” He gestures to Ben. “This is Obi-Wan Kenobi, a journalist from the Coruscant Tribune who’s here to aks us some questions for his latest article. As you’ll recall, we discussed his presence here last week.”

“You can just call me Ben,” Obi-Wan adds. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

He’s met with a soft chorus of hellos, some more enthusiastic than others. It is obvious that not everyone is quite so excited about his visit.

“Now, if you don’t mind me asking, are all of you abductees?”

There’s a low murmur and several offended looks. Jinn settles a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “We prefer the term ‘experiencers’ over ‘abductees’,” he says solemnly. “Gives us a bit more agency.”

“Of course,” Ben sighs, pointedly crossing out where he’s written _abductees_ on his notepad and scribbling _experiencers_ instead. “And were all of your experiences with the same alien, or are there different kinds?”

“Oh, there are several different kind of aliens,” the man with the dreadlocks excitedly informs him. “I’m Quinlan Vos. Experiencer.”

He offers Ben a hand from across the circle, forcing Ben to set down his pen and lean over to awkwardly shake it. “What was your experience like, Mr. Vos?”

“Just Quin is fine. My encounter was with a Dathomirian,” he announces. “She was tall and thin, with grey skin and tattoos on her face and head. Totally bald. She took me into a lab on their ship and made me do some weird physical tests. She was kind of a bitch, if we’re being honest.”

“I see…” Ben murmurs to himself, scratching the information down. “And what other… aliens… have you encountered?”

“I’ve only had experiences with the Dathomirian,” Quin explains, and gestures to the teenaged girl sitting in the circle, “but Barriss has had encounters with a Torgruta, right Barriss?”

Barriss does not seem particularly thrilled about being called out, but nods. “It started, um, a couple of months ago I guess? Like Quin I was taken up to their ship. She seemed like she was around my age, with orange skin and these big, white and blue horns on her head. Kind of like a headdress, you know? We sat down in a small room. She asked me a lot of questions about my life and about people in general. It was like she wanted to know about how we, as a society worked. When we were done she sent me back to my place, and I woke up in the morning like nothing had ever happened. I remember later in the day, when I’m reminded of something we’d talked about.”

“So, Dathomirian, Torgruta. Is that all?”

The petite, fashionably dressed woman speaks up then. “I’m visited by Anakin.”

“… Anakin? Is that a species of alien, um…?”

“Padme. Padme Amidala. And no, that’s his name. I’m not precisely sure what species he is, but he appears human and visits regularly. I woke up one night and found him rustling through my things. After that he took me up to their ship and, like Barriss’ encounter, asked me questions. He likes to talk about technology. Cars, computers, anything with wires or an engine. I’m not the best person to ask about all of that, but he doesn’t seem to mind.”

Ben is busy writing down what Padme said when his sentence is interrupted by a drop of blood. It settles on the paper, staining the page, and Ben brushes a hand under his nose only to have it come away bloody. He curses under his breath.

“Are you alright, Ben?” Jinn asks, eyeing Ben’s bloody fingers pointedly.

“Yes, it’s fine,” he sputters, setting his notes down, tipping his head back and pinching his nose in attempt to stem the flow. “This happens sometimes.”

One of the other group members, they hadn’t introduced themselves yet, hands him a few napkins from the refreshments table. He murmurs a low thanks and presses them to his nose, knowing that there’s nothing he can do but wait it out. The other members of the group, he can’t help but notice, are paying him uncomfortably close attention. They flash each other pointed looks between long moments of staring at Ben and his bloody nose, as though they know something he doesn’t.

“I’m sorry,” he sighs, pulling the napkins away and inspecting the bloody stains left on them. “I should probably go. I’ll catch up with you all later. Thank you for your time.”

They watch him until the moment he disappears out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah. There's that. A very silly kind of AU in contrast to my usual style. Maybe more later, depending on my inspiration.


End file.
